ESL Pro League Season 13 Event Preview and Betting Predictions

Gambit shocked the world by winning the IEM XV Katowice World Championship! Heck, the entire CIS region shocked the world throughout the event, showcasing four teams in the last six, and three in the final four. But Gambit is the team that took everyone by surprise in the grand finals. We knew they had clutch potential, but I mean… that sh1ro dude is just too sick right now.

Betting on ESL Pro S13 is what we’re all thinking about these days. It’s been two days since we got the first concrete betting odds, now we have the first match-winners and totals too. Prop bets are soon to follow, make sure you keep your eyes peeled on that!

WOW! 🤩 Our case luck is insane! 🤩

We’ve unboxed the talent line-up for #EPL Season 13!

Desk hosts@stunna @JKaplan

Analysts@YNk @Pimp_CSGO

Casters@MACHINEgg @SPUNJ @JustHarry@HugoooTV

Interviewer@FrankieWard

It’s going to be amazing! Starting March 8th! 😎 pic.twitter.com/espvjILMb8

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 2, 2021

Key Facts

• Competing Teams: 24
• Dates: March 8^th to April 11^th
• Location: Online
• Stream: ESL CSGO Twitch
• Outright Favorites: None
• Dark Horses: None

Where to Bet on ESL Pro League S13?

Nothing has changed in terms of the best CSGO betting sites out there. It’s still the same old bunch. That said, if you don’t know where to start betting on ESL Pro League S13, head on over to that link and prepare to soak up a ton of valuable info.

Tournament Format

The thirteenth season of ESL Pro League starts on Monday, March 8^th and runs through Sunday, April 11^th. Yessir, that’s more than a month of exciting CSGO gameplay!

Twenty-four teams are set to participate; all the world’s finest teams in one massive event. Europe, North America, South America, CIS – each region has solid contestants, but I’m sure we can all agree that the title will be decided between CIS and EU, right?

Group winners advance to the so-called play-in stage. The winner of group A plays against the winner of group B; the winner of group C plays against the winner of group D. The winning teams advance straight to the semifinals. Losers are “relegated” to the quarterfinals.

What happens with other teams from the group stage? Well, second and third-place teams from each group advance to the playoffs round of 12. They have to win two matches just to get to the quarterfinals where they’ll square off against play-in losers.

It’s an interesting format, right?

ESL Pro League S13 Betting Preview | Group Stage Predictions

Betting on ESL Pro League S13 won’t be an easy task. There are twenty-four participants, more than half of which have somewhat serious title ambitions.

Considering all that, we won’t focus on match-winners just yet. Instead, here’s a set of group stage predictions to give you a rough picture of what to bet on. No worries, we’ll have concrete picks ready in the coming days!

Group A Tips

Group A is the most relaxed group in the competition. BIG and Heroic are coming forward as the main favorites, though OG and FPX are not to be taken for granted either.

Even though they are the likeliest playoff contestants according to most CSGO betting websites, I for one don’t think they’ll fare so well. Don’t get me wrong, they’re likely to advance to the playoffs, but I expect Complexity to take the top spot and qualify for the play-in.

Well, they’ve been out of form for far too long! They have a terrific roster, proper snowball potential, and now would be a great time to finally step up for the challenge. It’s a long-shot, I know, but I like their odds here.

The group kicks off on the first day of the event (next Monday), with the following matchups:

• Complexity vs. FPX
• Heroic vs. Renegades
• BIG vs. OG

Both Heroic and BIG have a great chance to kick things off on the right foot, before playing their h2h match in the second round.

If they win against FPX, which they really should, they ought to provide a ton of value in the next two rounds against OG and BIG.

Group B Tips

Is group B the group of death on this event? Are Team Vitality, G2, Mousesports, and NiP enough for that flattering title? Should we count Faze and ENCE too? I mean, the talent pool in this group is through the roof.

That said, I expect them to take full control of the group and settle the winner in their second-round h2h encounter. Don’t get me wrong, Mousesports, Faze and NiP will have a proper fight for the third spot… but I doubt Vitality and G2 will do anything but fight for the top spot.

Group B kicks off on Saturday, March 13^th. Here are the opening-round matchups:

• Mousesports vs. ENCE
• G2 vs. NiP
• Vitality vs. Faze

I know both G2 and Vitality aren’t in the best of forms, but I still believe in them. Especially in Vitality who might not have played well on IEM XV Katowice and BLAST Premier Spring, but had a splendid run on BLAST Premier Global Final. Roster superiority is what’s going to push them through – ZywOo ought to step up for such a massive occasion.

Group C Tips

Group C features two of the last six teams on IEM Katowice World Championship, NaVi and Gambit. That said, they are definitely the heavy favorites here.

Sh1ro is in impressive form now, and watching him go up against S1mple once again is going to be a special treat. At the end of the day, I reckon both will go through to the playoffs, one way or another.

From lowest seed to triumphants ✌🏻

🏆 We are your #IEM Katowice 2021 champions 🔥

It was an incredible tournament and a monumental success for #GambitCSGO 🛡

Congratulations to our guys and thank you for the support ❤️💙🤍 pic.twitter.com/9YVFxbgDqe

— Gambit Esports (@GambitEsports) February 28, 2021

What about the third-place?FURIA, C9, Team One, and MIBR. A whole bunch of American teams fighting for a spot in the playoffs. Results-wise, none of them has anything noteworthy to add, suggesting a dead race right until the final round.

Talking about rounds, here’s what the opening circle looks like:

• Gambit vs. MIBR
• NaVi vs. Cloud9
• FURIA vs. Team One

Once again, NaVi and Gambit are up top, two spots are empty, then come the four remaining teams. The difference in form is way too much and the CIS champions should make it apparent right off the bat.

Group D Tips

Finally, group D betting tips! The fourth group starts on March 25^th (Thursday) with the following fixtures:

• pro vs. ENDPOINT
• Liquid vs. Fnatic
• Astralis vs. EG

We’ve been throwing around the term “group of death” quite a lot already, but just look at this group… I mean, Astralis, Liquid, Virtus.pro, EG, and Fnatic. Endpoint could cause a fright of two as well, but the above-mentioned five are something else. Remember, only three of these six teams will make it into the playoffs.

If we’re going to judge by the most recent form, Astralis, Liquid and Virtus.pro should cruise through.

While I do think Virtus.pro could pull another fast one by Astralis, they might be the ones to slip against Endpoint or EG. It’s something you should keep tabs on, especially if you’re intending to bet right on the first-round matchup between VP and Endpoint.

Astralis should be the most consistent team and qualify for the play-in stage, though they might be in an uphill struggle with NaVi as their most likely opponent. That settles it then – bet on Astralis in the group stage, but be careful once the single-elimination bracket comes into play.

Outright Betting on ESL Pro League S13

Looking back at the last few events, one thing is clear – there’s not a single outright favorite in CSGO anymore. There are at least six or seven teams equally capable of taking the title. We’ve seen it happen on BLAST Premier Spring groups, we’ve seen it happen on IEM XV Katowice. Teams like Astralis, NaVi, Vitality, and G2 are always up there with the favorites, but the likes of Virtus.pro, Gambit, and Liquid are not to be taken for granted either.

Here’s what the outright winner odds look like:

Odds are courtesy of BetOnline. You can check out our BetOnline review here.

There’s just no separating some of these teams, which is a good thing for the overall quality of the event, but a bad thing for esports bettors.

That said, we strongly advise you to focus on match-per-match stuff instead of long-terms.

That about does it for today’s piece.

Thanks for sticking through to the very end!